Iphone Vs Android

Dieter Bohn of The Verge talks to Rene about Apple's hiring of former Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, how the iPhone stacks up in the newly competitive mobile market, Eric Schmidt's Google Now gaff, and what we'd like to see in a Jony Ive led iOS 7.

Phil Nickinson from Android Central is busy looking at the HTC One, one of the first, big Android phones of 2013. Of course, that means he's putting it side-by-side with, and head-to-head against, Apple's 2012 iPhone 5.

Andy Ihnatko, with whom I have the pleasure of working on MacBreak Weekly, has written a series of three articles for TechHive detailing why he decided to switch from an iPhone 4S to a Samsung Galaxy S3.

CEO Tim Cook reportedly held an all-hands Town Hall meeting last week to address the state of the Apple with employees. Subjects covered were said to include employee perks, production from supply chain to sales, the retail stores, the competitive landscape with Google's Android, and opportunities in China. 9to5Mac's ace reported, Mark Gurman, has a full rundown. Here's a highlight from the competitive part:

With Google's latest generation of better designed iOS apps, including Google+, Gmail, YouTube, Google Search, Google Maps, Chrome, and more, the iPhone 5 is once again among the very best Google phones on the planet. iOS may not enjoy the deep integration into everything Google that Android does, but for most things, the overall performance of the iPhone, and the ability to use the best of Google alongside the best of Apple, all on one device, makes for an incredibly compelling experience.

And it's been a while since any Apple or Google user could attest to that with anything approaching conviction.

Google buys Motorola. Denies any plans to do anything with it. No one believes them. Flash forward. Rumors spread Google is doing something with them. Deep breath. It's rumored to be an "X Phone" designed, once again, to take on the iPhone.

That might sound silly until you realize it's been Samsung, not Google, who's had all the success in the market against Apple. Now that Google owns Motorola, it only makes sense they'd want that division to be profitable as well, and to be an insurance policy against the power of manufacturers like Samsung, the same way Android was an insurance policy against the power of BlackBerry and Microsoft at first, and then very quickly Apple.

Continuing the confusing trend of Android dominating in market share but iOS continuing to lead -- by huge margin -- in mobile web usage share, both Apple's iPhone and the iPad reportedly eclipsed Google's Android in Thanksgiving and Black Friday online shopping use over the last few days. This according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmarks:

Just because Apple has released the new iPhone 5 doesn't mean you have to race off and get it. Crazy, I know, particularly coming from the biggest iPhone enthusiast site on the web, but that just goes to show you how true it is. When the time comes for you to get your next phone, whether it's today or next year, and iPhone or something else, you should look at what's on the market and decide what best suits your needs.

Rene and Seth discuss Apple's major patent windfall, the UK order for Apple to apologize to Samsung, how iOS 6 compares to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and how Apple will make the iPad mini. This is the iMore show!